The Laundry

So yesterday the laundry issue became bigger than life.  I had to do something about all of those clothes piled up on the dryer.  Not to mention the dirty clothes that were piling up in the bathroom closet.

I knew that I could fold clothes, even on high doses of percocet.  That is a fairly low impact thing to do.  I could sit on the bed and fold clothes.  My biggest issue was getting the clothes from the laundry room to the bedroom.  I'm using the cane, so my right hand is occupied with that, leaving only my left hand to carry stuff.  I have taken to wearing a smock around the house because it has nice large pockets and I can carry stuff that way.  That wasn't going to work with the laundry.  My house isn't that big, but I was not willing to make the number of trips necessary to carry those clothes in my left hand and/or smock pockets to get them from the laundry room to the bedroom.

I hit upon a wonderful idea though.  I put the laundry basket on the walker so that it could be used like a scooter to transport the clothes.  First, I dumped the clean clothes from the basket on to the bed.  Then I got the reachers/grabbers/whatever those things are called, and got the dirties from the bathroom closet floor to transport to the laundry room.  I was very careful to keep the weight of the clothes to the front so that the basket didn't topple over.  (OK, it toppled over several times before I figured that part out. I am on percocet!)

I got to the laundry room and encountered a small problem.  The walker would not fit.  Let me take a moment to define "laundry room" so that there is no confusion.  We keep the washer and dryer in that room so we feel justified in using the term but it is not 100% descriptive.  We also keep cleaning supplies, wrapping paper, a refrigerator, some food staples and just about everything else we want to keep in the house but don't quite know where to put.  Calling the room the laundry/cleaning supply/wrapping paper/refrigerator/food/everything else room would just take too much time and I'd forget why I was even mentioning said room to begin with.

Also, the washer and dryer fit snugly against the back wall.  These are not those lovely washer/dryer combos seen on TV in those wonderfully large rooms that are probably bigger than my living room.  Think scratch and dent specials that aren't even the same color, in a room crammed with everything imaginable.  I mean really, every time we can't find something, we ask "Did you look in the laundry room?"

So, it was no surprise that the walker would not fit, especially now that it had been retrofitted with a laundry basket.  I am nothing, if not a problem solver.  The percocet helps with that.  I just backed in to the laundry room pulling the walker as far as it would go.  Oh, and I should add at this point that the laundry room was added on to the house.  It is not part of the original structure.  That makes the threshold into the room a little wonky and I had to give the walker a good tug to get it over that.

Once, I was sure the walker was as far in as I could get it thus saving me and my new hip precious steps, I put the dirty clothes in the washer.  Then, I piled the clean clothes in the basket keeping it nicely balanced.  The plan at this point was to take the clean clothes and pile them on the bed with the others and then lay down with them until it was time to move the clean clothes to the dryer.  This was just a little more than I bargained for.  Only there was one small problem.  .

The walker was stuck.  It would not move.  No way no how. I had a real problem because in my zeal to get the clothes done and glorying in my lovely invention, I had not put a phone in my smock pocket.  I could not call for help.  I had the grabber thingies but I could not reach the phone from that distance.  Even if I could, who would I call?

Was this important enough to call 65MD home from work?  I could call my mother but I was pretty sure the door was locked.  If she could even get in could she unwedge the walker? I feared I was stuck in the laundry room until 65MD got home from work.  There is a window.  I could open it and scream for help.  Were the neighbors even home?  What if they heard a woman screaming and called 911?  That would be majorly embarrassing.  No, I was left to my own devices to get out.

I had to get out.  There was no place to sit and I needed to sit.  I could lay in the floor.  There was probably enough space for me to curl up.  There were a couple of problems though:  1.  How would I get down?  2.  How would I get back up?  Then, I wasn't sure if it would be comfortable.  What time was it anyway?  How long before 65MD came home?  If he called or emailed and I didn't respond maybe he would realize I was in grave danger and come rescue me.  Fat chance.  I was on my own.

I jiggled, jimmied and jammed.  I shoved the grabber things all around the edges of the walker to see what was hanging it up.  How in the world could it go in and not come back out?  I finally mustered all of my strength and shoved the walker as hard as I could while trying to lift it. It finally broke free and I did not go sprawling with it.  Plus, I think those marks on the door jamb add character to an old house.

I made a beeline for the bed.  I don't know how long I rested, but I had a nice long lay about.  I went back to the laundry room sans walker to move the clothes to the dryer.  Luckily, it was a small load and when it was time to take them from the dryer, I left the walker in the kitchen and I was able to gather up the newly clean clothes in just a couple of trips.

After another rest, I folded all of the clothes.  By the time 65MD came home.  My clothes were folded and put away.  His were folded and piled neatly (I'm on percocet so interpret that loosely) in a chair.  The towels and wash clothes were on the walker but not in the basket,  I had put that away, ready to go to the linen closet.  

The first thing 65MD did after greeting me was to wheel the walker out of the room.  He went towards the bathroom.  Wow!  I still needed rest so I stayed in the bed.  I heard noises coming from the kitchen and figured he was getting something together to reheat for our supper and I continued to rest.

When I got up sometime later, I found the walker in the hallway with the linens still on it, just outside the bathroom door.  I chuckled to myself and went on into the kitchen to see what was for supper.  I found nothing to eat, but all of those groceries that I mentioned that didn't quite get put away, were gone.  So were all of the clean dishes that were near their homes.  I went straight to the walker and put the towels away!

As we were going to bed last night, I noticed that 65MD's clothes were still in the chair.  I told him they were his clothes, and he said he'd noticed them but didn't realize they were his.  (Making me think that perhaps they weren't quite as neatly folded and stacked as I thought.) This morning when I got up they were gone.  He must have needed some clean underwear.  I found the clothes later right next to the dresser where he keeps them.